


What Light Can Still Be Seen

by hellscabanaboy



Category: Sengoku Basara
Genre: Angst, Dissociation, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2014-01-21
Packaged: 2018-02-05 05:48:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1807636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellscabanaboy/pseuds/hellscabanaboy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lord Grumpy is always looking down, so far down into the world beyond. But that's all right. Ichi understands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Light Can Still Be Seen

Lord Grumpy’s command tent is vast, but there are scarcely any footprints on the ground, which is where Ichi looks. She does her best not to add anymore, steps light as as the air that carries her, and of course the miserable man on his palanquin makes none. So it’s as though they were hardly there at all.

“Now,” he says, “you must be sure to stay here until I come back to get you.” His face twists in a smile, which is a lie, because he’s as miserable as ever. But that’s good, he says, so it also must be when he strokes her face with rough bandaged fingers, and she gives the same lie back to him. She finds a stool left in the corner, and sits quietly and lets the huge tent make her small.

It hurts her eyes when the tent flap opens to let in the light. But it’s just for a moment, while a single man stalks inside. It must hurt his, too. He stares down at the maps spread out on the table, but if he sees anything, it must be far, far below them.

“Are you looking for my brother?” she whispers, almost to herself.

“What? Who’s there?” The man whips his head around, and she recognizes Lord Grumpy from the hard sliver of his eyes. No wonder he doesn’t see. “Oh, you’re Gyobu’s toy.”

Ichi smiles. “Lord Grumpy spoke to me,” she says. Spoke, not shouted, though from him anything sounds like a cry.

“What did you call me?” He twists up his face. She’s seen how he hides like that, but he’s still as sharp as ever, just pulled all about. Ichi laughs. “Do not mock me, girl,” he says. “I could have your head in an instant for such insolence.”

“Yes, Lord Grumpy,” she says, and suddenly his sword flashes like his eyes. It’s very lovely, so she makes sure to watch it carefully. All the way through its arc, right to her throat. So few things are that bright, here.

The light stops before her face. Lord Grumpy gives her such things to smile at. “Do what you want,” he says after a long frozen moment. “It’s no concern of mine.”

He sheaths his sword, turns his eyes away. “No, don’t go!” she cries, unthinking. “Don’t leave me alone in the dark. Please.”

“Idiot girl. It’s still afternoon.” But she can still see his eyes, “What is it you want of me?”

What does she want of him? What does she want, what ought she to want of him? “Do you see my brother?” she asks again. “I’ve seen you look down. So far, far down - maybe he’s there.”

“What are you talking about? I know nothing of the Demon King. I have looked only to Lord Hideyoshi, as well you should know.”

“I know. Oh, I do.” She lets out a little laugh. Is that funny? It might be, after all. “You still do. A true and loyal lord. I’ve heard you two speaking.”

She sees Lord Grumpy’s throat close. “You’ve heard Lord Hideyoshi? You dare make such a claim!?”

“I don’t mean to listen,” she says quickly. “But I speak to my brother too, you see. So very close by.”

Lord Grumpy’s face shines in the gloom of the tent, suddenly white and cold as a statue. “My lord would never have approached the hell where the Demon King lies! His spirit is too strong to be trapped in this world or the next! Even to claim such a thing is blasphemy.”

“Oh,” she says. Blinks. “Ohhhh.” Has she seen wrongly, then? She was sure she saw it. A light so powerful that even its reflection shone in Lord Grumpy’s face. But maybe that was just the sun on his blade, and the echo of his own voice. It’s so loud, when her world is so quiet.

“Tell me what he said.” One bleak, heavy breath, and now he’s finally looking at her, or through her, to whatever those eyes of his see “Tell me what he said, woman! You told me you heard him! Tell me, tell me or I’ll cut your throat right here!”

His fingers tremble as they clutch at her arm. They’re so warm. “I can’t remember,” she says. “I can’t remember anymore. I can’t hear anything…nothing from the light.”

He’s so pale. Barely there. All blackness behind him and around him and all the way through him, just like looking in a mirror. “Does he smile on my efforts? Is he pleased with me?” White fingers, white lips, white bones, and that’s all there is to him. “Just tell me. Tell me anything. Please.”

Ichi had once heard the voice of Lord Nagamasa, echoing from the hell her brother had dragged him into and clear as a fresh ray of sunlight. Then she had painted the world with such blood, just as Lord Grumpy does now, and even thought she loved the color. If Lord Grumpy could hear such a thing, maybe then he would smile. But when she thinks about it, it’s so hard to hear any voice but her brother’s anymore. And maybe Lord Grumpy’s statue face can’t remember how.

He slides down, far far away and to the floor. There’s nothing to see there. It must comfort him, so much nothing; but his hand is still clutching her arm, so maybe that’s some comfort too. “Is he then lost to this world?” he murmurs. “And all justice denied me forever?”

Ichi knows nothing of justice but the echo of a long unheard whisper. But she knows what dead things sound like. So she leaves his hand on her arm, places her own over it and gathers him up in a blanket of dark clouds. He will dream of his light, she knows. And Ichi will dream her own familiar dreams - such dark dreams, but so warm - and no matter how black the world grows at least she will never be alone.

They still haven’t moved when the miserable man comes back, and when he sees them his smile is different this time. Something secret, not for her. So she looks down, down at Lord Grumpy and through him into blackness, and her smile is also a secret from anyone but him and from her brother.


End file.
